Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I must first comment to say that next to all of the volunteers I encountered at Championships were friendly, helpful, and pleasant to be around. Truly embodied gracious-professionalism. However - there was one in particular I as both a mentor and a FIRST participant had a serious issue with.

There was a particular woman outside of the pits - where they had the extra pairs of goggles. On the first day I didn't have my own set to get into the pit with or use for the day. So I asked very politely if I could sign them out for the day - and instead of trying to work something out I was met with the following dialogue.

Me: "...May I sign a pair out for the day"
Her: "YOU NEED TO HAVE A MENTOR SIGN THEM OUT"
Me: "Sure. I'm a mentor. Ill sign"
Her: "IF YOU WERE A MENTOR YOU WOULD HAVE SAFETY GLASSES OF YOUR OWN"
Me: "I don't pack the equipment - I actually travel to my team from college..."

and here's where is really got me fired up:

Her: "WELL THEN YOU AREN'T A REAL MENTOR."
direct. quote.

I must comment to say: WOW. How any volunteer with FIRST could say such a thing is beyond me. That was probably the rudest thing I have ever heard at a FIRST event - And these are the people we let deal with our guests...but it gets worse.

I borrowed a pair of glasses from another team member for the remainder of the weekend(Scouter). On Saturday morning - I was putting them on as I walked into the pit and they snapped in half right down the middle. The same woman was present and not wanting to go through that again I sent one of my students in to get me some gorilla tape so I could attempt to tape my glasses back together. Sadly the bridge wouldn't seem to stay on my nose - and so reluctantly I had to ask to borrow a pair.

I explained my story and showed her the broken glasses and after a brief exchange of trying to get her to compromise she said -

"FINE. take the D*mn glasses"

and reached towards the bottom of a filled bucket to find the ugliest, oldest, dirtiest pair she had.

I filed a complaint both days with the other volunteers - but obviously nothing was done to correct it. This thread is not to jump on one person but to hopefully promote an interest in finding a solution to the problem. It is partly my fault for not owning my own pair - but to be met with this sort of hostility at a family event - and to have my integrity as a mentor questioned...that is unforgivable. While volunteers are donating their time, I think FIRST should try a little harder to find some graciously-professional people. Not like what I had to experience. Or at least provide a channel so that we can report incidents like this...
/end rant

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Wow, you really got chewed out. I empathize with you as a college mentor, as there have been instances of the "not a real mentor" mentality, though not like this.

There have been some volunteers with whom there has been friction (mostly queuing staff) but never to the level of profanity.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

FIRST could have some people that the volunteers don't know interact with them to test their integrity, and these volunteers could be dealt with accordingly. Even if it is a volunteer job, it's preposterous to be so rude, and hopefully this way they can be replaced by another person if they are so unruly.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Something similar happened to me last year in St. Louis. My team was moving through the pits to go outside (I forget why) and I was the only one with no glasses. They wouldn't let me use a pair because I was a team member, and I had no way to contact any team members or mentors to get me some.

After ten minutes one of the volunteers kindly went to my pit to notify a mentor of my problem and I finally had a pair of glasses with which to make my 15 second trek through the presentation booths and out the back door.

I've never encountered anyone at a FIRST event that swore at people or were anything but the nicest people on the planet. I hope she didn't have the opportunity to talk to many people, because I would honestly have left the stadium and never came back if I were a spectator, sponsor, or anyone else like that.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I usually sympathize with the queueing staff, especially during the early quals. Their frustation is pretty understandable, but the safety glasses people really don't have the same stress on them. Still, behavior like this is just entirely inexcusable.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

From what I was told by one of the people I reported her to, the had apparently received lots of complaints. That is bad because

A) that means she encountered lots of people.
B) Because nothing was done to try and fix the situation (But I guess that was the theme this year).

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Do you really think this is necessary?


Anyway, sorry you had this bad run in especially if you were as polite as reported and she was really yelling at you. Pack your safety glasses ::safety::

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I love that you are a metor that also helps the future be bright. In this situation I would see a point that FIRST should buy saftly glasses to lend. I think if many teams and students should send emails and call their regional director and FIRST staff to make them aware of this situation.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

FIRST does have safety glasses to lend...there were boxes of them...I believe they are for "visitors" - but when you have several boxes of them I don't see why an adult cannot sign out a pair for the day. I would've gladly traded in my license for a pair. Compromise is fine - unwillingness to isn't.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Wow. I must consider myself lucky at this point, as most of my experiences with FIRST volunteers have been very pleasant, and none of them hostile anywhere near this extent.


I do have to say on the other hand, atleast it wasn't a FTA or Robot Inspector you had to deal with.:D

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

No one should yell or insult anyone either a volunteer to attendee or attendee to a volunteer. The point of not dispensing the glasses was to prevent running out which would prevent others from accessing the Pits. Perhaps the leaders at St Louis could post reminders that safety glasses are mandatory prior to the event or perhaps a team could set up either safety glass sales and/or rentals at the door: can you say fundraiser!!!!!!!

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Is that really necessary?!

Check your reputation dots- I put an email address you can contact to address those volunteer concerns. I hope it helps.

As a volunteer coordinator for a regional, I know I wouldn't want any of those attitudes representing my event. It's entirely possible your message was never passed up to the proper authority.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

At every regional I've ever been to (so far 2 different ones, so not a wide variety), the safety glasses people do three things:

1) Hand out safety glasses to anyone who needs them (they shove them in your face)

2) Enforce safety like they were getting paid for it (and they were volunteers)

3) Give people (teams and visitors) safety advice and dafety memorabilia given by a local team.


Never once have I found an unpleasant safety glasses distributor , so this is a shock. I don't know where FIRST gets their volunteers for championships, but it seems like they may need to do a bit more screening than normal (maybe have FIRST alum do the jobs that involve human-interaction. If anyone we know more about what's going on). Our CA regional-level safety glasses distributors are great people, and the people at champs should be 10 times that.

I'm sorry that you had to go through that. While champs can be stressful, I see nothing stress-inducing about handing out safety glasses.

Of course we don't know the whole story (maybe she found out her team lost a match), so we can't make accusations that this person isn't fit to volunteer. I do think, however, that FIRST should be more careful as to who they have volunteering where.

Just my opinions.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

(We had a bad experience with the FTA so I'm still a little bitter about that, sorry)

I appreciate it. The man who told me they had received several complaints seemed to have some sort of authority but maybe not.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

The only questions I got where about my age. (I was the main contact for my team at the time) and she wasn't sure I was a mentor, but I finally had to show her my ID. Then she laughed about it. I guess glad that I was helping.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

A Safety Patrol member chewed us out for using lead solder at North Star. It was totally unnecessary. Sometimes these people need to just focus on the really unsafe practices (things involving poor use of power/hand tools or potential electrocution, etc) instead of telling us why shooting a soft foam ball into a labcoat supported by 2 mentors and a student (all wearing safety glasses) in our pit is somehow unsafe (this happened at Midwest).

I understand that those volunteers are just trying to prevent injuries, but sometimes they pick the wrong things to start an argument about.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I met her as well. She wasn't that gracious to older mentors as well. I had left my glasses in the stands, and was trying to get something to eat, when I got a call from one my of the students in the pit. They needed to ask me a quick question about something. I explained this to her, and said I needed a pair of glasses for two minutes. She said it was up to each mentor to have their own and that I should go back and get mine. I said that the student had a rather urgent question, and that returning to get them would take about 10 - 15 minutes at least. She said, "Fine, but I better see them back here right away, and you better have your own the next time."

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

The whole thing about a college mentor not being a real mentor is a whole different argument, but will say that the safety glasses people tend to be a little bit on the intense side.

A particularly frazzling scenario at the Peachtree Regional was each morning, I was stopped by a particularly enthusiastic volunteer would stop me and a group of students at the front and stand next to us to make sure we didn't pass. Ultimately, this caused us to send text messages and calls to other members on the team to ferry us some side shields. I can only imagine the headache at worlds.

I don't know what's being told to the safety glasses inspectors at the front, but surely there must be a way to relay the importance while not coming across as rude or insensitive.

- Sunny G.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I think I know who the OP is referring to because my dad and I had a bit of difficulty getting safety glasses Saturday morning as spectators.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

It seems like there are quite a few volunteers who don't understand the spirit of FIRST. It is important that the people supervising them make sure that this is understood.

I don't think there is anything wrong with saying something like this. Anyone and everyone in FIRST has earned the right to complain. There is no reason the field issues should not have been addressed before championship just like there was no reason for this volunteer to not understand their job. I understand that perfection can never be achieved but seeking perfection will lead to excellence, this year had a feel of being satisfied with good enough and people are frustrated with that. (Vince Lombardi paraphrased).

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Sounds about right. At one point I overheard a parent adult asking to borrow a pair from a different admin and the answer was "Not while she's around".

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Wow John, sorry to hear about this. As much work as you put into 3310 this year it is a crime to be treated this way and even worse to endure the mentor comments.

FRC Team 1296 had a couple college mentors this year. And, for the first time, we had several new young fresh graduate mentors that were former members of the team. Speaking for the 1296 gray-haired mentors, college-aged/young mentors are awesome!! The mixture of older conservative engineers with the energy, innovation and skill-sets of the younger mentors made this year my favorite so far!

Brush it off - this lady was an anomaly in FIRST.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Though I won't say that the volunteer acted appropriately on any level, I will say this-

FIRST cannot really screen for this type of thing. They do ask for references when a volunteer signs up in VIMS, and they do have the right to refuse to allow someone to volunteer if there are complaints, but they cannot give interviews or re-screen every volunteer every year. That would be a herculean task.

Second, as Libby informed the OP, there are appropriate channels to address these concerns. Any of the light blue shirted people at champs are the volunteer coordinators (at regionals, not sure of their champs title), and can assist you. If you can't find one of them, the pit admin staff should be more than willing to help.

I have seen one or two volunteers who act inappropriately, whether it is because they are just having a bad day, or whether they simply don't respect a certain person for some reason. The volunteer coordinators are always just as disappointed with these situations as you are, and will most certainly sit down with the volunteer to discuss the situation.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I too had an encounter with this lady. Myself and one of the students both had gotten chewed out for simply forgetting our safety glasses in the pits. Furthermore, she also lectured the student for 10 minutes and proceeded to complain how she was blocking traffic (even though she was talking to her at the time)

Obviously this is one of the few isolated incidents but because of her interactions with many of the event's guests, something should have been done about it.

My biggest concern is the difference of treatment depending on the volunteers. If you're not going to lend them out to non-spectators, then don't for the entire weekend. Keep some consistency. Another problem is that we don't really know who to contact about volunteer issues and I think FIRST should clarify this for at least the mentors.

Aside from all of this, I'm happy to say that many of the volunteers always had a smile on their faces and even though you could tell when they were stressed, many of them found a way to exhibit the spirit of FIRST so bravo to them.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

So the solution to the problem is to prevent people from accessing the pits in order to prevent people from preventing people from accessing the pits? Okay, then.

How do you determine who's "worthy" of the coveted safety glasses?

And, seriously? Charging people to rent them? You realize teams paid $5000 in registration to be there. Not to mention their hotel, travel, and food costs. Want to really turn people off to FIRST?

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I like the idea of a "safetly glasses store" for people who want their own but don't own a pair, but there should still be a booth for lending them out day to day, the same way as it is now

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Not a horrible idea, since, most people who fall under the forgotten/broken/lost safety glasses category will likely need a new pair.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Someone should just start putting sponsor logos all over them and hand them out. They already do this with water bottles that nobody wants (so many Platt bottles at SVR...), so why not with safety glasses that everyone needs and wants?

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I was a safety glasses volunteer at Peachtree. We were told not to give out safety glasses to teams. No exceptions. The volunteer co-ordinator was not particularly happy with us when we did make exceptions. There were some times when I really wanted to help but I didn't want to risk doing something "wrong".

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I remember receiving a free pair of Andy Mark safety glasses at Worlds. Although for the life of me i can't remember how I got them, or where I got them.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I couldn't find them, though I didn't look very carefully.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

i had an issue with one of the safety Judges...


One of my students was standing on a 2ft crate so I was holding the crate and standing next to him just in case he fell. A safety judge walked up and said "if your going to be an idiot and do something stupid, back him up" and grabbed my arm and placed it on my students underwear and made me grab it...

needless to say it was an awkward moment and I removed my hands which didn't go over well with him...and it ended up with him walking away shaking his head. I understand safety, but I dont need to be putting my hands there:ahh:

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Whoa! :eek:

You'd think judges and volunteers would have more common sense than this... most do, but this sort of behavior IMHO is unacceptable. This kind of crap is NOT what FIRST is about.


On a side note, from what I have been reading the past few days it seems like there was a higher level of hostility at champs this year... cursing volunteers, sketch-touch safety judges, and even fistfights over scouting seats... If it weren't for what I have seen elsewhere I'd say FIRST's GP level is slowly slipping.

Bottom line: People, if you aren't already, USE COMMON SENSE!. It matters.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Great advice.
There were HUNDREDS of volunteers at the Championship who worked hard and did a good job. Each team member probably came in contact with at least 100 volunteers in the course of their time at the Championship.

At any FIRST event, the way to deal with a volunteer who is acting inappropriately is to contact the volunteer coordinator. There is a chain of command for dealing with issues. You can locate the volunteer coordinator assigned (usually only one at a regional, but numerous ones divided by area at the Championship) by starting at pit admin.

98% of the event volunteers, if properly trained, do a great job. There will always be exceptions because dealing with people can be messy. They come in with various baggage including not understanding what the job actually is, or could just be having a really bad day. Sometimes people want to volunteer, but they are not right for the job they are assigned. Sometimes volunteers are reassigned to a job they would prefer not to be doing.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

It is unfortunate whenever you have a bad experience with a volunteer, but it is a life experience none the less. It is hard to say why the volunteer reacted the way they did. She may have had a bad day. She may have been a parent expecting to get a field reset job and instead was sent to be on safety glasses patrol.

At the Volunteer coordination meeting right before things opened up, they reminded us that have volunteered before to be as cheerful and positive as possible. They also reminded us that many of the volunteers may have never volunteered before, and to try to keep an eye out for this sort of stuff.

I personally would hate to be the safety glasses person. Not because I think handing out glasses is boring, but because of the thousands of people coming through the door, many do not have glasses with them. A fair amount of those people like to argue about the necessity of "needing" safety glasses.

My guess is this particular volunteer had a very strict view on who was to receive safety glasses. This coupled with a few arguments on the need likely lead her to be more abrasive than desired.

You did the right thing by reporting the volunteer. On the outside, we can only guess if/or what action was taken.

The brain is an interesting thing. Often conflict will inact a fight or flight portion of your brain that can lead to irrational behaviour. Some folks are more prone than others to have this area tripped. Being the "Safety Glass Police" likely encounters a lot of conflicts/stress and she was probably in that state of mind most of the day. Learning how to recognize when you or someone else is in this state of mind and how to counteract it is a great skill to master. As a mentor you will encounter many many many more situations similar to this, and your ability to deal with these situations will be a role model for your students.
I know when I get that way, my face will get warm and red. It doesn't happen often, but still more than I would like. You might have some sensitivity over the "real mentor" comment (which is a pretty rough comment), and may have been more argumentative than you realize. That doesn't excuse the other persons behaviour, but I hope it might explain it a bit.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Wow, you passed up a chance to hand out a major wedgie, and you could have even said it was in the name of safety! You're a bigger man than me. :)

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Yep, we gave out 1500 AndyMark safety glasses at the Championships. We will do this again next year. How we distribute them may or may not change, but this year we handed them out at our booth.

I agree that the volunteers are instructed to act certain ways, be cheerful, and abide by GP. I was a volunteer inspector on Wednesday and Thursday, and we were told how to act and inspect very clearly. I trust that other areas (safety glasses hander-outers, etc.) were well informed how to act. This volunteer should have been asked to leave her duties.

Maybe Volunteer Coordinators can hand pick a few undercover auditors who do things that have historically raise the ire of these over-zealous volunteers to see how things are handled. In this case, it would be good to have an auditor try to enter different doors into the pits without safety glasses and then see how they are addressed if they give similar excuses for not having glasses as said in this thread. Heck, since we are giving out a few thousand dollars worth of safety glasses, I might try this myself (hide safety glasses, hide name badge, see what happens).

Sincerely,
Andy Baker

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

It wasn't necessary in this thread but it was a theme of this year. FIRST knew their fields were faulty the first week, and didn't fix it. I'm not saying they didn't try but I feel Einstein would have been alot more fun if all three robots were moving on the red alliance during the first two finals.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Having been one of the volunteers that has helped run safety glasses tables at past events, I can tell you that there are some guidelines that go with them. These are a couple of the guidelines that I was given:

1. the safety glasses are for guests and visitors, they are not for teams
2. everyone must sign the safety glasses out and sign them back in

To varying degrees, I was told that teams should bring their own glasses and should 'know better', serving as role models of responsibility. I have also been told that the safety glasses station is one that comes with gate keeping responsibilities.

Reading through some of the commentary, I can see that the volunteer was following those guidelines. To kick it up a further notch, the safety glasses volunteers were probably told that teams should know the importance of having their own safety glasses by the time they get to Championship level.

The message is correct. The messenger needs some work in the area of interacting with others and in conducting herself in a professional manner.

Regarding the age/mentor confusion... I have confused ages before, not correctly assessing the age of the student: junior high, high school, and/or college. It has made me feel like a total dork and, when that has happened, I have apologized. Sometimes, an apology is not enough but it is always a good start.

I'm sorry that happened but do follow the correct procedure in following up with your complaint. And, if you get a chance, think about the positive interactions that you had at the Championship. I hope there were many that far outweighed the rudeness of the safety glasses volunteer.

A side comment - there were a couple of safety glasses stations that were located in very cramped quarters and, in my mind, were a little dangerous for the people that were running those stations. The teams, moving as a large enthusiastic crowd, could have easily run them over but for the tables that served as a protective border between the volunteers and the crowd. If I had been assigned to one of those cramped stations and blocked in by the crowds, I would have asked to have been reassigned or I would have stepped down from that station and explained my reasoning to the VC. That's an .02 from my perspective.

Jane

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

These are open forums. Everyone is welcome to post their opinion.
But:
1. this is not the correct thread for your opinion on this. Search the portal if you feel like you would like to voice your opinion on this topic.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I will say that while 99% of the volunteers at Champs were completely respectful, courteous, and cheerful...but, I did find myself sometimes longing for the next time I could play in Michigan again.

There were times where the pokey stick guy was basically a sleep. Which I can understand that it has to be the most boring job ever, but that's not really acceptable. On Thursday balls that flew out of the field we not quickly chased down and returned to the field. Now, most of these things are very very small, but it just showed that many of these volunteers had very little experience with this game. As the weekend moved towards eliminations, things started getting better, so atleast there was continuous improvement.

But, there was one person that really bothered me. I believe it was the Field reset lead on Archimedes. It started during practice on Thursday when he was trying to get a penalty called on us for grappling the bridge. I guess this is fine, but I would prefer my penalties get called by a referee. He also was constantly rushing my drive team to get the robot setup. I know there is a schedule, but this is also a competition. We are trying to do some advanced things in Hybrid modes, and they don't work unless the robot gets setup correctly...which takes a little bit of time. Usually the field hasn't even connected before we are done with setup.

There is no place in FIRST for rude volunteers. Especially being rude to the students. Volunteers might not get paid to be there...but neither do we, actually we have to pay (a lot) to be there.

I would prefer that the volunteers on Einstein understand that all of us down on the floor are interested in seeing the matches too.

Overall my teams interactions with the volunteers were positive, at that's all that matters.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I was a safety glasses attendant last year at Sacramento. It was just me and my friend, no adults except for this one nice lady who periodically came to check how many glasses we had and then make announcements to pit admin and try to find more accordingly. We were supposed to sub-in for the two girls who were working there for a couple hours (they never came back), and the only rules they told us is "Make sure nobody walks in without safety glasses, make sure nobody walks out WITH them."

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I understand the need to not supplying safety glasses to teams who should have their own. But how about this? Get some UGLY safety glasses. Attach a large object on a cable to them. They can be two minute loaners to allow someone get to the pits to get their own.

No excuse for rudeness but, with as many volunteers need to run an event the size of championships you are bound to get a few bad ones. Be glad she was handing out safety glasses & not inspecting robots. :) Speaking of Einstein. "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Couldn't you use a different entrance?

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I know that there was a problem with a volunteer and all, but there were also multiple doors. While this kind of behavior is inexcusable, I would have just left and gone to one of the other doors, to see if one of the other volunteers would have given me a pair.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I was a volunteer at the Championship this year. Unfortunately when you have as many people as you had volunteering you are bound to have one or two that may not be as courteous as they should be. Any time you get this mainy people together, there will be something happen that someone doesn't like. Over all I beleive FIRST does a better job than most in running an event of this scope.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

People asleep at pokey sticks or slow on returning balls just isn't ok (and yet I've seen it denied multiple times by others when it's pointed out). The rush off the field though, I think we can really do something about at a higher level. It's happened to us as well, and it seems that it's an honest lack of instruction to the volunteers. I hope next year they come out with a rule like "teams must be off the field by the time the first alliance is done being introduced", and will pursue this idea.

Instructions like this can't fix all the bad volunteer experiences, but in some situations I think they can help. As far as safety glasses, I like the two-minute loaner idea. How do the sign-outs work now?

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Who are the volunteers you deal with at every competition? Some are mentors. Some are parents. Some are students. Some are friends who were convinced to help out. Some are professionals who work for one of the event sponsors. Some might have no connection to FIRST at all.

When thinking about volunteering for something like this, there is a relatively large amount of turnover. Parents might stop when their kids graduate. Friends might be too busy. Students might move away for college. Mentors and professionals may have lifestyle changes (like having a kid, for example) that prevent them from investing the time. As a result, you always have new volunteers at events. People who have never done this before.

At each event, there is a list of "key volunteers". These are the people that run the whole show. It includes the head ref, the lead robot inspector, the head queuer, pit admin, field reset, and FTA (I may have forgotten one or two, but you get the idea). These individuals have all been volunteering, mentoring, or otherwise been involved with FIRST for many years, and they're the ones that "get it".

If you have a problem with a volunteer, document it as best you can (in other words, write it down!) and find the best person to report the issue to. If your issue is with a robot inspector, talk with the LRI. If its with a ref, talk with the head ref. If you aren't sure who to talk to, go to pit admin OR find the nearest available key volunteer - they'll be able to make sure the complaint is registered with the correct people. Having a written copy of the complaint avoids the "telephone game" and misunderstandings.

Unfortunately, these events tend to be staffed a little light. There simply aren't enough volunteers to have extra's sitting there waiting for a job to do, thus it's incredibly difficult to ask a volunteer to leave halfway through an event. I know robot inspectors often get pulled off to help with other jobs after inspections are done. As an LRI, I can tell you that I would figure out how to appropriately address any complaints about an inspector. Most often, this would involve talking with the inspector to try to get them in the right frame of mind, and then keeping an eye on them for the rest of the event. Anyone who had multiple or serious complaints would either be asked to come back in a role that didn't have the interacting with teams or spectators, or would simply be asked not to come back.

Finally, I'll close with how busy the volunteers (and especially the key volunteers) are. They're all running around the entire time making sure the event runs smoothly. They have a hundred different things that need to be done every hour just to make sure every team gets out on the field for every match. Unfortunately, that means something like this (a bad experience with a safety glasses volunteer) can be a lower priority, especially if the immediate issue has already been "resolved" by getting the individual a pair of safety glasses from another team.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Unfortunately, I had the same experience as the OP after I had left my goggles at a restaurant in order to make it back in time for a match. When I got to the door I realized I forgot them and asked to borrow a pair for 2 minutes while I went back to the pits to grab one of the many spares I keep in my bookbag. After she refused and was quite rude about it, even after I explained I had spares and would bring the glasses right back and had a match in 5 minutes, I was told to call someone for a spare from the pits. After I stood there calling people without answer in front of her, she still refused, everyone was out of the pit to see the match and its pretty hard to notice your phone ringing in there, even on vibrate. There were also many students and mentors who didn't have service in the pits/dome. I told her I would have gladly signed out a pair for 2 minutes and forfeit my wallet or even my coach pin to her to borrow a pair, but nope, she did not budge. Thankfully, a student from another team who overheard was nice enough to lend me glasses for a minute while I got my own. I thanked the volunteer anyway, and went on my way.

I understand that a volunteer cannot make exceptions otherwise everyone will ask, but why be so rude? Other than this person, I had no issues with other volunteers. I usually hate ragging on volunteers because they are all wonderful people, but this was just too frustrating.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Perhaps you could set up a station with "Andy Mark" safety glasses outside the pits...so people wouldn't already have to have a pair to get your free set.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

At regionals you sign your team number and name and get a temporary pair.

I was told at champs no one can sign them out at all.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I've run into more then one volunteer working the pit entrances who was just plain rude and nasty. I concluded that it's not a matter of the individual, it's the position. I can imagine that sitting in the same place for hours on end having to deal with the same 'problem' again and again would wear thin. It will get the best of anyone, given enough time. The bummer is that a lot of visitors, parents, friends etc. get a full dose of cranky FIRST volunteer right away.

I had a chance to talk to Bill about this at CT. It seemed like it wasn't the first time the issue had been brought up. My suggestion was that volunteers be rotated through the position so that none were required to hand out glasses for more then a couple hours. He mentioned that had been looked into in the past and would be again.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I, my wife, and one of the parents all had a very similar experience.

My wife and I got to the pits before realizing we forgot the bag with the safety glasses in the car. My wife just wanted to stop in and see how the kids were doing, I was going to help with some changes to the robot. We were denied after stating we were mentors, and told to call someone on the team or go get them. I shrugged it off, kinda a pain, but I was able to borrow a pair from our inbounder, who wasn't going to the pits anyway.

But later, one of the kids parents who isn't really involved in the building of the robot, but also wanted to go see how the kids were doing had this scenario:
He asked for the safety glasses.
The woman asked if he was a mentor or a visitor.
He responded that he was a mentor, as he's helped the team with things like fund raising and such.
The woman responds that the glasses are for visitors, members of the team are responsible for bringing their own.
The parent states that at all of our other events in michigan, that it was never a problem for him to borrow a set of safety glasses.
The woman says "Well this is St Louis, not Michigan".


We also had a parent forced back out into the downpour by event staff just before the hail/tornado because he came in the wrong door after he took the team trailer back to the garage after loading our stuff up.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Years ago they gave safety glasses to anyone. Many teams did not bring any with them. On Saturday they would run out of them and send people around the pits to look for them. It was common to find the entire team in loaners and find 10 more pairs in their pit. The event would finsh with 2 or more empty totes. That is why they want the teams to supply their own. That said not allowing an adult to sign for a pair seems a little to strick.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

It is a matter of matching the volunteer to the position. Shout out to Dimas, who is brilliant at this position and could give training on how this should be done. He has helped us at Chesapeake for years.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

My wife was a safety glass distribution engineer last year in St Louis. She did not have a very positive experience. Sounds like the same problems persisted this year. I think it's mostly miscommunication between teams and FIRST.

FIRST doesn't have enough safety glasses at the Championship to be able to loan them to teams. (Last year on Wed or Thurs they overnighted more safety glasses to St Louis for the weekend)

The volunteers at Championship are instructed to only give glasses to visitors. As pointed out already, teams are instructed to bring enough for themselves and they will not be loaned glasses. Maybe this needs to be a separate e-mail blast before Championship to get the point across.

Also, if you do have a problem with a volunteer, you can go to pit admin who can get a hold of the volunteer coordinator responsible.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Well the kids are in charge of packing - the thought of kids forgetting a pair is not crazy. What I was suggesting is that adults could sign out a pair...just in case. To provide no alternative if a team forgets theirs is kinda unforgiving of FIRST.

The real issue was the way it was handled - with hostility and in an un-graciously professional way.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

The biggest problem is that safety glasses are most commonly kept in teams pits so when members of the team who have been in the stands for most of the day decide to go down to the pits the issue arises that the teams safety glasses are in the pits. For those who keep a pair with them all weekend they can be commonly be lost when one leaves the pits to visit the stands or get something to eat.

I'd recommend teams keep a few pairs in the pit with a majority of your supply in the stands for members when they go to the pit. It makes no sense to pack your safety glasses and leave them in the pit for the weekend. Another recommendation is for students to purchase their own pair (which most do) because they are more likely to have them at competition.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

The safety glass job at Championship is very stressful. The volunteer who was involved in this incident had probably been yelled at by students/mentors all weekend as my wife had last year.

But I agree completely. It was not handled in the appropriate way. And you're right, FIRST needs to be a little lenient here.

All of this would get better if there were more safety glasses available. And if people actually brought them back when they were done borrowing them (this is the hard part...)

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I would agree with you, if the first incident had not happened on Thursday morning.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

This is crazy, but could teams leave their glasses at the entrance? Say on Wednesday each team (optionally) gives 2+ labeled glasses to the safety glasses people, and only those glasses can be given to the team. Making some simply cubbyholes/shelves (stable, light, modular, etc) to store each divisions glasses would be a good student project. I know it creates more for work volunteers, and even for teams, but maybe it's time to give more teams more resources as well as more responsibility.

Just a random, difficult to execute thought.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I think that having 400 + FTC/FLL cubbyholes might be a bit much, but a tweak to that idea might not be: Teams can donate 2 or 3 pairs of (NEW/CLEAN) glasses to the pot. Teams that are checked off on the donation list can borrow glasses for the event in case of emergencies! :)

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I was worried about getting them back at the end, but this is actually kind of nice. Donate, don't lend. I'd do it.


4 sets of 10x10 cubbyholes didn't seem so bad if they were integrated into the design of the entrance, but I sort of missed that whole FTC/FLL thing. I take it they have the same problem?

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

My Mother, who is not apart of the team except for being a parent coming to a FIRST Event was told by some (i'm Guessing its the same person) she was not aloud to use a pair of safety glasses. My mother was wearing our team jersey so she looked like a mentor. She finally got one from our pit after waiting for someone from our team to pass by, and then asked to grab her a pair. The worst part was is because she has to wear glasses, the pair we got her weren't the one's that went over the glasses, so she could barely put them on and it wasn't safe at all. When I heard that i was so frustrated, I can't believe a FIRST Volunteer would be like that to guests. They have no idea who you are, or what you do on your team.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

As a new volunteer, I echo much of what has been said. It is often the position and lack of rotations or shifts, that begin to wear on some folks. No doubt the OP encountered someone already at the end of their patience level or started off with little tact to begin with - but I can see how it would deplete in a hurry.

But it makes me wonder how much glasses are ever used at school or your shop. When I visit the field sites at my work, hat & glasses are just second nature. It really is rare that someone 'forgets'. So in some ways I do like that FIRST says no-borrow for teams and that the 'idea' that mentors should know better (not the rude phrase but the concept). So never been to a robot class or work session - is it true that maybe only the folks over running some machine wear glasses, and nobody else does. Esp those around the edges. Should they be?

If you spent the last 6 weeks or 4 months doing bot work, having glasses around your neck or in your pocket would/should be second nature.

Now believe me, I am one for common sense safety - and in many cases think glasses are not really needed. But it is well known at every FRC/FTC event, that glasses are the battle cry all day long from green shirts and entrance volunteers. So those arriving at the event, best prepare for that.

And deadlines or rules in the real world are often met with much more harsh penalties. Ask an IRS or OSHA or EPA agent. Doesn't argue the merit of the rule or the enforcer...it just is what it is. Bring glasses with you on the bus/plane/car - and carry the 24 hours a day on your person.


But yes, teams wanna help themselves - setup a separate box/booth somewhere for spares. FIRST doesn't have enough to share their vistor glasses, and your box would be reserved just for teams.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Next time pinch yourself on the arm and verify that you are in fact standing right there.

Perhaps this person often sees mentors that are not really there.

:p

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Thank you for making this thread. I think that it's important to address and for all volunteers to think about.

I had a bad experience with one of the volunteers that I worked with all weekend at Champs (I handled the situation by talking to the Volunteer Coordinator, so I'm not going to go into details here), and it stemmed a lot of thought about WHY we volunteer and the overall role of a volunteer. It also got me thinking about how we need to train our volunteers, especially at big events like the World Championship and the State Championship.

My first reason for volunteering: I wanted to have fun. I volunteered on field reset at Champs because I wanted to be near the action and work with a few of my close friends, hence: fun.

My second reason (and the reason that I think most people miss): I wanted to make the experience of the World Championship Event the best possible experience for the students, mentors and teams. My job on field reset was pretty easy: open and close the gate, set up balls, tape the field, watch matches...but I tried to do this with a smile on my face. I tried to wish the teams good luck as they walked off the field, and get the students smiling by joking around with them as I handed them balls for their robots. My goal was for the students to be able to relax for just a second before they had to focus on the stress of driving and representing their team.

Unfortunately, like Adam pointed out, sometimes volunteers are more concerned with their assigned job, as if they've been given a mission that they have to complete no matter what.

I.E. the safety glasses person who was told to not allow team members to get glasses, and the field supervisor who is too concerned with his schedule so he shouts at students to hurry up, when they're just trying to enjoy their very first moment on the floor of the dome.

So how do we fix this: well, we probably can't. Each volunteer needs to learn how to manage the stress on their own, and the Key Volunteers need to do a good job monitoring their minions (easier said than done: I know, I was the VC for MSC). It's up to volunteers to also monitor each other. If someone seems stressed or out-of-line, then they should talk to someone about it. Like other people have pointed out: volunteer coordinators are a good place to go.

To add: my general experience at the Championship was that the volunteers were awesome. I met some pretty cool cats on the Archimedes field and really enjoyed laughing and dancing around with them. I also loved getting to meet people from other teams, like the drivers and coaches. It was extremely rewarding and inspiring.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Adam, I think I know who you are talking about. I remember hearing him rushing people off the field saying things like "Hurry up and get out, we're about to play!" At times it was just being plain rude. As the flag boy I kinda felt I was disrespected by him at times.

On a closing note, this weekend was really fun! I enjoyed volunteering and will definitely do it again.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Jon Stratis put this very well.

The only thing I will add is that rarely will there be a solution that provides the 'instant gratification' you might be seeking after an incident like this happens.

When you say that you had to file a complaint twice, was it because another incident occurred after the first, or because justice wasn't dispensed quickly enough for you?

I encourage you to consider other perspectives in this scenario.

Those in charge, volunteer coordinators, event coordinators, FTAs may not see your complaint very quickly. When they do, what do you suppose they have to consider? Their first thought isn't "how can I remove this volunteer". It will be something along the lines of "this could be a can of worms where I have to verify what really took place, and I may not be able to in even 30 minutes". If there are many complaints against one person, as many have claimed, then the verification process could be less problematic. However, someone in charge should still give the volunteer in question the opportunity to defend themselves, wouldn't you agree? This volunteer's task may seem trivial to you, but it may be one she prides herself on, and if she were removed without explanation, it might be obvious to her there is a problem, and she may feel insulted that she was not given any chance to talk about it. Even if a volunteer leader does finally decide action has to be taken and someone removed, it is often not a trivial process. Those in charge will want to be very gracious themselves to avoid any hurt feelings. It may be a volunteer who was just having a bad day, and they don't deserve to be thrown away and treated badly just because they treated someone else badly. If this were a military or a business, things would be different. But this is a volunteer effort where often people are putting in time they don't have to, and we want to appreciate that by giving the accused, or someone just having a bad day, the ability to defend themselves or at least a discussion where they can learn from what happened and come back next year to do a better job.

Believe me : I have been on the receiving end of bad attitudes from volunteers before (and just about every other class of person attending a competition), and it does not feel good. I've had to deal with it in situations where it affects me literally all day while I'm doing a task that has almost no downtime. If it's something like rudeness, I've had to remind myself, "mostly, this is your ego being bruised, you can live with this for a little while, and then address it later". Also, I and/or others simply do not have the time to address it with the person during a fast paced competition. One reason is because it could involve arguing, which can be very time consuming and often not productive. Certainly if the problem directly affects the core operational functions of a competition, the person will likely have to be removed immediately, but I think this is extremely rare.

Really, issues like these are resolved after a competition. This is why planning is very important and a good amount of effort goes into planning events. As others have said, volunteers really can only be screened so much.

There is one thing I think could be done better - reminding volunteers about gracious professionalism and why they are all there. I've seen some volunteer coordinators/event planning people hold a short volunteer speech where they go over this. It's one of those things everyone knows, or everyone should know, but to hear it out loud can be useful and it can get peoples' heads into the right frame of reference for an event where things can be stressful.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Sorry you had such a bad experience. Thankfully most all of my volunteer experiences were fantastic!! I also get mistaken for a student... all.the.time. It'll get better, I promise. I always try to joke with them because I know that they are there on their own time/dime and are probably stressed out just like you probably were. I'm super cheesy, and that seems to work for me. haha!

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

hey Andy, I got one of those pairs, but had them stolen from me(along with my Control System Adviser hat). Any chance of getting a new pair before next year?

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Interestingly enough, we had members of our group who volunteered and were first told the wrong time they had to be at the event on Friday (7am instead of 10am) and then when 10am came around they were either told they weren't needed or were only busy for a few hours before being let go.

We also had people come in on Friday who had signed up to volunteer but were turned away.

These people were all willing volunteers that ended up with a lot of time on their hands. Perhaps the coordinators at the event will consider rotating out the safety glasses volunteers since people who were signed up in VIMs were free.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

That's really surprising because this was a big problem last year. They did not have enough people to rotate the safety glass volunteers. Maybe after two years of the same problems happening they will make improvements.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I view this as an opportunity to innovate.

Someone build a safety glasses vending machine and charge for it.

Make a little return box maybe.

Put it in your business plans...

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I, like many people who responded, had a similar experience. I left my glasses in the stands, and asked to borrow a pair, when I was refused. I was told that they are for guests only, no exceptions. I tried to explain that FIRST wouldn't want someone barred from the pits because they didn't have safety glasses with them at the moment, and that FIRST isn't about punishing people for being forgetful.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

The other solution is for teams and individuals to be responsible for their safety glasses. If a team doesn't pack their safety glasses and they don't have a procedure such as a check list to help them make sure they're packed - then deal with the consequences. If a person forgets their safety glasses, then deal with the consequences.

I don't think volunteers who man the tables should be rude and unprofessional. I do think that teams/members can be more responsible and less dependent on the safety glasses table to take up their slack.

It's not that hard.

Jane

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Respectfully. I was spare parts at MAR Mount Olive. I brought probably about $8,000 of tools and provided the USB extenders that made it even possible to use the Kinects on that field at all (see I have these friends and that ask me at 9:30PM on Fridays while setting up fields for things that no person in their right mind would have access to...it's a good thing they have a friend not in their right mind like me that bought a few hundred dollars worth of devices for them months before...without being asked predicting this exact situation might pop up).

The day I was spare parts at that event. I had literally just gotten new glasses the day before. The pair of safety glasses I had turned out where to small for my new spectacles.

So for a bit I wandered around without glasses. Now fairly I was given some side guards and in reality it wasn't the best situation for anyone.

Things happen. I think the right thing to do under the circumstances...given the duration of the event...would be to point out the issue up the chain of command ASAP so that the next day a remedy could be put in place.

I'm not blaming the volunteer, nor am I looking to push on teams that are often already pressed into awkward situations that they have no control over either.

The events need to move forward and safety needs to be a very high priority. Let's not let that stressor hurt practical problem solving.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

techhelpbb,

There is a procedure in place. If teams or members of teams have a valid complaint, they can follow that procedure. Coming on CD and complaining is not going to win any support from me. One reason, I've worked the safety glasses table. Several times.

Making a suggestion like making a vending machine for safety glasses and charging for it? A team can design and build a vending machine. Charging for the glasses at a Competition venue - I don't think so.

I've forgotten safety glasses. I've dealt with the consequences. It was my fault that I forgot them.

Jane

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Apparently from the posts they feel it didn't produce results. Though from the posts I can't tell if the complaint is that the person was not disciplined or that the more pressing issue of safety glasses for teams was resolved.

What they want is basically not clear to me.

I don't feel that doing your job as the volunteer (as I am a volunteer as well) should be a discipline issue. So I worry that leaving them to toss volunteers under the bus isn't a great idea either.

The way I look at it is this. If the volunteer is charged with handing out free safety glasses only to specific guests. Then let them do so. Such a machine merely removes the conflict.

Such a machine would provide safety glasses at a cost. That in effect is a consequence of their situation.

Creating a log jam for certain teams, when some may literally have situations beyond one's control, is not a level playing field. Worse if this happens to the wrong person at the wrong time you can log jam the entire competition.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

You are misunderstanding and misrepresenting the entire reason for my OP. I even said I was in the wrong. The entire post was about a rude experience with a volunteer, and obviously several other people in this thread had the same issue.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

By the time we get to St. Louis, we have spent over $1,000 per member to get there. Leaving safety glasses at the hotel, in the pits or losing them happens.

I do not know what a bulk order of cheap safety glasses cost, but surely a deposit of $5 or driver license or VIP pass or something similar would cover the investment for loaners that are not returned. FIRST needs to buy more.
We WANT people to visit the pits. We want everyone to be safe and to develop safe habits, thus the safety glasses station. With the huge cost to run the event, it would be an almost trivial expense to assure anyone who wants to enter the pits would be able to enter safely and with little hassle.

While I always agree with Jane, this time I have a differing opinion. Teaching and enforcing responsibility is a universal goal for teachers, parents and mentors , but not a priority for the safety glasses station. (maybe a tally mark after the team number of student/mentor loaners. Let the UL safety inspectors meet with the teams with the most "hits" to investigate and instruct.) Let’s focus on getting people in and out of the pits safely with minimum hassle. All people should be offered the opportunity to borrow safety glasses for safety sake. Discrimination for age, team affiliation, or competition location is counter productive to FIRST core goals.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

http://www.bulksafetyglasses.com/fitover.html

About $1.75 here for 60+.

In some places a $1.75 would be what a 20oz bottle of Coke in a machine would cost.

200+ would be $350 without shipping or further discount.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I am not in disagreement with this. In another post, I stated a concern for the location/placement of some of the safety glasses tables and I've begun a draft of an e-mail that I will send to FIRST. But, the bottom line is self-responsibility and accountability.

To the OP...
The volunteer was rude. You reported it. Done.
Just because action wasn't taken that you could see or that you desired at the moment that you desired it - doesn't mean that the complaint wasn't addressed or won't be. Keep that in mind.

Jane

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I have read this entire thread and I do agree that no one has the right to be rude. But......

Folks this is the World Championship. This is not your first time at a competition. There is simply no excuse for not having your safety glasses with you at all times if there is ever even a remote possibility that you will need to go to the pits. Forgot in the stands, then suffer the consequences and go get them. I can't think of a single reason to ever leave them in the pits!

From the posts in this thread there seams to be a lot of people who do this. It sounds like it is a big problems for teams so how can you expect a volunteer to keep track of deposits or drivers licenses and the like.

Imagine a poor volunteer that gets the same request or story time after time when they have been instructed to not give them to team members. How quickly would you get frustrated? How many sets of glasses would FIRST have to provide?

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Accidents happen though, and that is what were not allowing for.

If you forgot a part or something breaks, the community doesnt scold you for it - and we actually have an entire station to help you get what you need so you can participate. Yes, even at the world level we have this.

You cannot make an argument that we should not have a spare safety glasses table, and still call for the spare parts table. The logic is the same. Everyone works hard to get to that point - something small shouldnt set them back. FIRST isnt an organization centered around consequences - were one centered around making sure everyone gets a chance.

But that again was not the point of the thread. My original problem was that the problem I had the first day was not solved. She was still there the next two days. She was still causing problems all of those days. As is seen in this thread several people had the issue. It is a problem that nothing was done then. You cannot condone swearing and bigotry on the part of a volunteer in a FIRST setting. She was presenting a bad image for FIRST. The thread was to show that nothing had been done on FIRST's part to solve the problem - and to draw awareness to something before it becomes common place.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

The thing is that if this volunteer sensed that they were causing a stir or was unhappy with the repetition they should have spoken to their supervisor.

Their supervisor should have spoken to them when you complained.

Personally I don't really think it should be your expectation that someone should be disciplined in way that you can see.

Think of the possible humiliation you send to them? Did you like when they troubled you? Do that over and over and wait till someone explodes. It will happen.

For all we know, the volunteer did feel openly humiliated and their behavior escalated as a result of you and others saying something.

I agree there is a responsibility of the supervision to stop the situation. If a volunteer is getting into trouble remove the barrier they are enforcing or remove them...but removing them should be the very last option.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Accidents happen but they shouldn't be happening as much as they do especially not at the championship. . I'm sorry but there is no excuse for forgetting your safety glasses. Maybe if it wasn't such a common occurrence FIRST could adopt a different stance but it happens way too much. Team members have to accept responsibility.

I never said there shouldn't be a safety glasses table and comparing it to the spare parts table is well........

And I agree there is no place in FIRST for this type of behavior, I never said there was. I am not condoning or excusing such actions.

I was not commenting on how the volunteer behaved just the statements I read in this thread by team members about the availability of safety glasses.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Perhaps FIRST doesn't need to provide them at all. At <$400 for a box of 200 unbranded glasses. Why not offer someone the opportunity to give away branded goggles?

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

They could have changed her position in a heartbeat to a station where she might cause less trouble, or be a bit more relaxed. But they didn't. She was in the same spot all weekend.

"They should suffer the consequences of their actions" - in regard to your "she shouldn't feel humiliated" stance. It sort of works both ways ;)

What got me is a head volunteer shook my hand and told me "thank you" when I told him I had just had an interaction with the rudest volunteer I had ever met. He obviously knew about the problem. But the fact that the aggression and un-GP of the situation escalated...this shows that the way FIRST handled the problem didn't work.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I believe Andy Mark was doing this - though I think they might have been inside the pits which puts us back at square 1.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

So I have a question for you then...

Having an idea of this now (I was not there in person): did you mention to AndyMark, the person giving you the headache, or the supervisor this possible solution?

Just something to think about for the future.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I believe Andy read this thread already ;)

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

You're right I went back and looked again and found Andy's post and your recommendation in response.
Good job.

I'm afraid the point remains. If at the time of the mess someone had gotten Andy's attention and coordinated then perhaps everyone would be happy now.

I don't see the timing being addressed.

The point being that sometimes it's better to facilitate resolution than let someone stone-wall you especially when the impact is wider than just you, your team and possibly FIRST.

I agree it's not right that you were stone-walled. I also agree that you should have had the glasses.

Just a way for everyone not to turn something silly, but important, into a free for all.

The way this plays out now is like showing up to the car accident with all the missing lug nuts from the tires that fell off and caused the accident. They got there eventually, but you missed it by >that much<.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

Easy and cheap solution - to the glasses problem that is, not the volunteer problem. Glass tethers/hang cords/whatever you want to call them. I don't leave home without them. Just ask my team members.

They start at $0.78 each at McMaster-Carr. http://www.mcmaster.com/#safety-glasses-holders/=hd2eus

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

To reassign someone 'in a heartbeat' based on a few or several complaints is not a good way to run an operation which relies heavily on volunteers. You are coming off as someone who wasn't happy that the volunteer wasn't immediately punished for offending you. Part of gracious professionalism is respecting that there are processes in place to deal with these issues. There are even opportunities to deal with processes you don't think work they way they should.

It looks like you've only replied to those for whom you can write an argument, "but that wasn't my point" or "nothing was done", and anyone else who has made a good point, in general, or specifically about how things work, you have ignored them and not bothered to write anything such as, "Ah good point. This doesn't solve the issue, but you have some points". In my experience, this is indicative of someone who is more concerned about their ego being bruised rather than that they have a genuine concern that someone else might experience the same problem. You haven't shown the slightest interest in how the process works after competition, even though you have been told several times now, by different people, that the complaint was very likely noted and something may be done about it later on.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

As an alumni, a mentor, a sibling, a family member and a planning committee member it saddens me to hear that people had bad experiences with a volunteer. Although I wont touch on that subject I have already given my feedback as a volunteer in our survey about some issues that went on at Worlds this year that I would like to see changed.

The one I want to mention and apologize for as a volunteer that was in the position is the crowd control for reserved seating for Einstein. I was put in a position that I was uncomfortable with before the matches on Einstein. I know I did upset some people with the answers I gave and some people were already upset with the situation for other reasons. Volunteers who were doing crowd control were given specific instructions: orange wristbands, yellow wristbands and VIP passes only. I am here to say sorry for anyone I talked to and upset on Saturday. I feel bad about the mess that was the reserved seating. I have put in my $0.02 to hopefully make it better next year and avoid some of the conflict we encountered when we did not have seat for 3 of the finalist teams.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

How hard is it to give her the same job but in a different area? like FLL gatekeeper(no glasses to fight over - and I doubt she would sit and swear directly to smaller children), or even put her inside the safety glasses area - not distributing. I feel like either of these would've solved the direct person-person atmosphere that created conflict.

While I didn't expect her to be imminently "punished" - I'm a bit distraught when someone who has received multiple complaints and is obviously a bit hostile doesn't get moved and is allowed to keep committing the transgression.

I've replied to people who either grossly misunderstood what I was arguing (i.e. safety glasses vs. volunteer treatment) or kept telling me it had been solved - when correctly I said "nothing had been done. I have responded to people with good ideas about the glasses though. See Andy Bakers response.

I don't care about how the process works after competition. I'm assured she wont be back in that position next year, but with so many visitors encountering issues on Saturday as described by the posters in this thread, she should have been removed much sooner. We shouldn't try to fix a problem after it's reached a peak - we should fix it early on. You dont keep driving on a flat tire...

I don't know why you felt the duty to revive this. We had seemed to reach an end, and it was dying nicely. I've got a call with FIRST tomorrow, and I'm sure FIRST will present a better system for this sort of thing next year.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I went through the entrance a number of times and would like to give a slightly different perspective to everyone on the situation. Because I have to operate from a wheelchair or scooter, I am frequently blocked by people on foot and forced to sit and wait for someone in the crowd to stop and let me through. I spend a lot of time sitting and listening to how the crowd behaves.

While I agree with the OP that the behavior in the situation was not appropriate, please think a little about what the volunteers at the door have to go through. Taken over a period of time, the volunteers at the door were subjected to a great deal of hostility from the people trying to come in. If you observed the number of people at the door, you would see that the number of volunteers there doubled and then tripled as time went on, simply to try to handle the massive number of people trying to get through the door with sunglasses or nothing.

It appears to me that the volunteer coordinators actually did try to do something that would benefit everyone by increasing the staff and decreasing the overly heavy load on the volunteers present. It may not have been punitive enough for some, but isn't this supposed to be about teaching people?

Large masses of people moving through an area take on a sort of mentality of their own and believe me this can be INCREDIBLY intimidating. I know what great people participate in FIRST, but they all forget their manners sometimes. During championship, I had people in the crowd race in front of my wheelchair, jump OVER my chair and jump in front of me to get into the elevator because they were faster, forcing me to wait for the next one.

Many of the teams would come up at full speed while yelling "ROBOT" and never even pause to let me or anyone else try to move out of the way. I was hit by robots 3 times. When I attempted to walk the small distances that I can with my cane instead, it was kicked out from underneath me twice. No apologies.

In short, I don't think that everyone is taking into account the stress on all of the people involved. Take a step back from the arguing, look at the other person's perspective and realize what they are going through. It was not easy for any of the parties involved because they each have to look at it a different way from a different type of stress. Solutions are generally best reached with patience from all parties, regardless of how difficult it may be.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I have explained how. From a pure physical logistics standpoint, as if we were dealing with automatons, it is not difficult to move one person with a non-critical task with no learning curve to another similar position. When you're dealing with people, in most cases, they deserve an explanation. They may have been told one thing earlier which would conflict with something they would subsequently be told upon reassignment. These issues take time. Others managing the event are not you, so they don't have the same absolute certainty of what has transpired enough for what they might consider sufficient evidence to take summary action.

Everything you have said indicates that you desired and expected an immediate action with no allowance at all for the time it takes to speak with her to hear her side of what happened. I haven't seen anything you have said about what you think should have been done which would allow for any discussion what so ever by anyone other than you.

This is one of many reasons gracious professionalism exists : so that one transgression does not lead to a chain of inconsiderate actions which ultimately lowers the bar for how people are treated. I do concede that she is being allowed to continue her behavior, and strictly speaking, this lowers the quality of the event. Ideally, that should be stopped as soon as possible. But 'soon as possible' does not mean without any other consideration such as getting her side of the story, or perhaps speaking with her to explain what she is doing wrong.

Ideally, we should deal with a problem immediately. However that does not completely eclipse the need to treat people with dignity. The tire analogy is poor. She is more like an odd noise you hear while you're driving, and someone should check it out, but if you were currently doing something time intensive, you would probably continue driving to your destination and deal with it then, or on an especially long trip, you might attempt to check it out when you had time to stop.

I don't feel I've revived anything. From my point of view there are several points that have been made here that you haven't given any indication you understand. Foremost, the concept that it may take time beyond a 'heartbeat' to reassign someone with dignity, and possibly a good deal more time if a lead volunteer allows them to explain themselves, as I think they should after only a few complaints (was it 3? 5? 7? was is more than 10?)

There may have been other things going on of which you were not aware. Perhaps there were many complaints about different crowd control and safety volunteers, and so shuffling them around was not as sure a bet or simple as you have imagined. Perhaps the volunteer coordinator wanted to think of the implications of moving someone who is rude to another position. Perhaps the volunteer coordinator was concerned with having a rude person assigned to interact with younger kids who are less likely to have the maturity not to take it personality. I'm sure I cannot think of all the possibilities, but I would not completely assume that nothing was done. Perhaps there was discussion, perhaps someone had good intentions to take time out to take action, perhaps the person was spoken to, and a process had begun.

Lastly I would like to reiterate that I completely agree, according to your account of what transpired, that you were not treated fairly and I truly hope you don't have to experience it again. My attempts to explain other points of view are not meant to say otherwise but rather to offer some other possibilities and explain why these issues are more difficult than they might otherwise seem. I hope your call goes/went well, and that you don't just feel like nobody cares about how you were treated badly.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I know this is now venturing a bit OT but this sort of thing gets me on my other soapbox regarding safety in the pits. The "Green Shirts" need to be looking at behavior all over the pits, not just inside individual 10'x10' areas... The amount of people running through the pits or robot carts being pushed at top speed is staggering. This is probably way more unsafe than anything teams are doing working on their robots.

Re: Terrible Volunteer Experience
 

I agree with what you are saying. That said, I really think that could be handled by Crowd Control. If you are going to have 100 teams per field, then you need to beef up the crowd control aspect of things in the pits. Crowd Control could work with the Safety Advisors as a team.

Walking through some of the aisles in Curie was a squeeze and that was before it was packed with the teams.

Jane